Tackets, Overbands, Lacings and Buckles: a lecture by Katherine Beaty on early Italian stationery bindings of Harvard’s Baker Library

This lecture is free and open to the public. Seating in limited, so please arrive early!

The Harvard Business School’s Baker Library houses the largest collection of early Italian business records outside of Italy. It includes 150 account books and day books of the Medici Family, 81 volumes from the Barberini Family, and many more. Presenter Katherine Beaty will talk about the use and structure of early Italian stationery bindings that were observed during recent conservation projects of the Medici and Barberini collections. These unique limp vellum bindings include unusual structural features, such as overbands, decorative alum-tawed lacings, spine and endband tackets, and different fastenings types, including ties, loop and toggle, and buckles. This lecture is presented in conjunction with a workshop on Italian tacketed stationery bindings hosted by the New England Chapter of the Guild of Bookworkers. For more information on the workshop and to register for one of the few spots remaining in the workshop, click here.

Presenter Katherine Beaty is a rare book conservator in the Weissman Preservation Center for the Harvard Libraries. For the past 10 years, Katherine has been treating rare books from the Harvard library collection, with a special interest in parchment, Islamic and non-western books, and investigating historical book structures. Over the last four years, she has been conserving early Italian account books from the Harvard’s Business School’s Baker Library Historical Collections. Katherine earned her M.A. from the Buffalo State College Art Conservation program with a specialization in book conservation.

Workshops:

Learn to sew, assemble and cover your very own case binding, a versatile and ubiquitous bookbinding style. Case bindings allow for the covers to be made separate from the text block, providing a variety of decorative and labeling options before the book is complete. Materials will be provided, but participants might want to bring decorative and printed papers that they fancy for their covers.

In this 4 hour workshop, students will learn the essentials needed to make their own hand tools to fit their hands and needs. Beginning with the raw materials, students will cut, hew, file, scrape and polish bone into beautifully functional folders, awls, and/or objects.

The workshop fee includes either 1 large, 2 medium, 3 small, or some combination thereof of raw bone, a dust mask, a sandpaper packet of gradiated grits, and access to an assortment of files and rasps. Students are also encouraged to bring a dust mask and work gloves. More of Brien’s work here: https://www.beidlermade.com/